Katie Goodman looks the part of the cool kid next door, but she’s a bona fide nerd. Her song “Storm’s End” is a Game of Thrones reference, as revealed in a recent “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on Reddit. “When we made that song, I thought it sounded like an evil surf song, which would be perfect for the Ironborn,” Goodman writes. In the Reddit session, Goodman also tells a fan who’s a physicist that she has a physics education masters and “wrote a physics-related love song called ‘Space Time.’”

The leader of the indie-punk La Sera, Goodman’s silvery Los-Angeles-cool vocals (a surf-rock version of Zooey Deschanel) are front and center on the band’s latest album, Hour of the Dawn — their most driving, fun and aggressive project yet. Dawn is more evocative of a head-thrashing punk show than past albums, which leaned more singer-songwriter.

“That was a specific part about the third record; I kind of set out to write songs that I would want to play live,” Goodman tells EW. “The third [album], I feel like we really nailed it. I’m super proud of it.”

Her favorite lyrics come from new song “Running Wild,” one of the album’s best anthems: “You go on and on about those things that you believe/ There’s no use in crying if you’re drowning in the sea/ Oh baby, runnin’ wild/ You’ve got no place to go/ Except your heart.” Goodman captures anger, sadness and love in a cocktail of clever songwriting and driving guitar solos reminiscent of basement house parties and small, greasy venues.

With orange hair and thick bangs, Goodman is a hipper version of the all-American girl. She was in a kickball club in college, has a kitten named Miles, several “friendship tattoos” (as she calls them) with her former Vivian Girls bandmate Cassie Ramone and fronts her own band.

The last time Goodman was in Eugene was in 2008 when Vivian Girls played a house show with fellow Brooklyn-based art-punk band Japanther. This time around, La Sera performs with King Tuff, a garage-rock band headed by Kyle Thomas, who Goodman has been friends with for the past ten years.

“I’m most excited about touring with King Tuff,” she says. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited about a tour. It’s gonna be great.”